If one has to point out the most identifiable feature of the last decade, most of the people will name the rise of social media. The social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and now TikTok have ended the monopoly of a small elite over information.
Out of these platforms, Twitter helped the most to change the political discourse, and made communication more interactive. If we go back to the age of TV and electronic media, a small certified journalist had monopoly over information. The intellectuals- media persons, writers, and professors- lived with their own worldview and communicated it to closed groups, were praised by peer groups, with no real time interaction to common people, to whom the information was actually intended.
In the pre-social media era, elitist figures perpetuated one school of thought, and promoted each other with similar views, therefore enjoying a near-monopoly on popular opinion.
But, with Twitter, all monopoly of small elite over information ended, and today some of the most popular global leaders like Donald Trump or PM Modi prefer to communicate over Twitter to audience rather old media.
However, if we keep these things apart, the people whose reputation was damaged were elite journalists of left-liberal establishment. In India, these people were journalists like- Ravish Kumar, Karan Thapar, Saba Naqvi, Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghose, Rajdeep Sardesai, Siddharth Vardrajan.
With Twitter, most of these self-proclaimed guardians of information have either left the Twitter or get exposed every day, sometimes with more abuses on the post than likes.
To give an example, a few days ago, Barkha Dutt, one of the most recognized faces of Indian journalism, who was Prime Time anchor at NDTV for many years, and now writes for international publications like Washington Post and runs a digital platform called Mojo, has expressed her ineptitude when it comes to knowing Indian polity and basic civics, in a single tweet.
Wonder what happens if @OfficeOfKNath dissolves assembly? https://t.co/83BhbmIfZu
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) March 10, 2020
Quoting a tweet from Milind Khandekar, former chief editor of ABP news, she wondered what if Kamal Nath, whose government is now in minority in Madhya Pradesh after MLAs loyal to Scindia resigned, dissolves the assembly.
In the comment section, many users schooled her in basic civics and explained that, “Only a government in majority can recommend dissolution of the House. If the Governor isn’t convinced that the government is in majority, he will first ask the CM to prove majority. A minority government cannot recommend fresh elections.”
This is just one example. On the social media platform, these journalists are exposed daily. Their stupidity, their agenda is questioned every day by the commoners. Just go to the profile of Sagarika Ghose or Saba Naqvi for real time examples. On most of the tweets, these former media celebrities get more ‘befitting replies’ than likes and retweets.
On the other hand, politicians like Subramanian Swamy, who were ostracized and blacked out by the ‘mainstream media’ in pre social media era, have gained considerable influence through smart use of social media. Today, Swamy has more than 8.5 million followers and is regularly invited in ‘mainstream media’ events too.
Given the kind befitting replies these journalists get, many of them like Ravish Kumar and Karan Thapar left Twitter. And others like Sagarika Ghose blame BJP IT cell and call the commoners abusive.
A few days ago, Mohammed Shahrukh, who made the news all over the country for brandishing a gun in front of a Delhi police personnel during the anti-CAA violent protests was arrested from Shamli, Uttar Pradesh.
As soon as the riots took off, the video of Shahrukh, brandishing gun at the police personnel went viral. The radical Islamist elements on social media started spreading the fake news that the man in question was not a Shahrukh, but a ‘Hindutva terrorist’ Anurag Mishra. Joining the bandwagon was India’s very own Magsaysay and Gauri Lankesh Award winner Ravish Kumar. The controversial NDTV journalist went to the extent of legitimizing the fake news during his TV show, wherein he said, “Police has not been able to arrest him (the gun brandishing guy) till now. Delhi Police clearly says that he is Shahrukh, but look at Social Media, he is being identified as Anurag Mishra.”
Astounding how Ravish Kumar can spread such blatant lies, defame an innocent Hindu man and get away with this. @IndEditorsGuild will do NOTHING in this case. pic.twitter.com/ZHu2cXOy3B
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) February 27, 2020
However, Ravish Kumar is yet to come up with a sincere apology for tarnishing a common man’s image, rather so blatantly. Having shamelessly generated the fake news earlier, the NDTV journalist came up with an agonizing excuse instead of apologizing for reckless reporting. He said, “In my show, I said, “Police clearly said that he is Shahrukh, but see social media is claiming that he is Anurag. We need police to speak up on his identity.”
Anurag Mishra who was unnecessarily dragged into controversy by leftist and liberal fanboy’s favorite anchor has been having a hard time since then. Apart from the loss of reputation and sheer hatred, he also faced life threats.
The rise of social media triggered the fall of many ‘holy cows’ like, we are sorry to say, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi- who were very seldom attacked by the usual suspects in traditional media, that is, print, and electronic media. This has also led to a ‘reimagination’ of many historical figures like, Veer Savarkar and Subhash Chandra Bose.
The traditional filters, or what is popularly known as ‘gatekeeping’ in traditional media, are no longer there in social media (except the minimal regulation by social media companies, for which they have been accused of being anti-right wing). The ‘gatekeeping’ was basically ‘political correctness’, where something perceived as ‘politically incorrect’ by the editor was filtered.
Therefore, the rise of social media is among the most important phenomena of the decade. It has led to regime change in politics, shaken the political establishments, exposed the hypocrisy of the old political establishment, led to the fall of many prominent figures, including journalists, and rise of the new, and ended the era of political correctness leaving no holy cow in the process.
